McDonnell Looking To Repay Faith

Fellow new goalkeeper Joe McDonnell has said he's looking to repay the faith that the club and manager Neal Ardley have shown in him when handing him his first professional deal in football.

The 20 year old has developed well at Basingstoke Town this last year, under the watchful eye of goalkeeper coach Ashley Bayes, who worked with him there and invited him over for a training spell with us last season, and having broken into their first team during last season, his displays brought him to the attention of a number of Football League clubs and more than vindicated his decision to become a stopper.

'Having played part time football, it feels good to finally sign for a professional club. There were a couple of clubs interested in me, but signing for Wimbledon was my first choice. It was a great option for me to come here, Bayzo has really helped me and I've been working with him for about three years now. When I first met him I was not as set on being a goalkeeper, but I realised this was what I wanted to do.'

McDonnell did play amateur cricket until he was 17 year old, and gave that up to then start taking his football seriously, and clearly it's now paid off for him.

Of course, out of the two recent goalkeeping additions, McDonnell has been signed with more of a eye on the U21 side as he continues his development and he thanked Basingstoke boss Jason Bristow for the part he's played in his progression as well.

'Jason has been a massive factor for me, he was the academy manager when I first joined Basingstoke and I was fortunate that he became first team manager. Jason gave me my first contract and he really helped me.'

Being happy with his progress so far, our new young keeper isn't resting on his laurels and he knows there's a lot of hard work ahead of him now, and of course he has to impress and perform in our U21 team but his ultimate aim is to make the break through to the first team in the coming years.

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